UKSG Conference 2015 - EPSRC research data management requirements Ben Ryan EPSRC

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Research Data ManagementENGINEERING AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL

Ben RyanSenior Manager, Research Outcomes

Underpinning Philosophy

Data is a critical output of the research process

which should be shared:

to reinforce the integrity, transparency and

robustness of the research record

to increase its potential value through aggregation

to enable new research questions to be addressed

to support the wider exploitation of data

30-31 Mar 2015UKSG - Glasgow 2

RCUK Principles – an overviewResearch Data…

o is a Public Good – to be made available responsibly

o has long-term value – the need for preservation

o should be Discoverable and Citeable

o is subject to legitimate constraints – it cannot all be shared equally

Researchers should have a period of privileged access to ‘their’ data

Data users should cite their sources – and abide by terms of access!

The Bottom Line: looking after and sharing research data is…

part of the research process

a legitimate use of research budgets


EPSRC’s RDM

Principles & Expectations….

30-31 March 2015UKSG - Glasgow 4

Some bizzare comments…

“The nature of my work is such that it generates no data that

doesn't end up in my papers, so I'm unlikely to know about these

policies.”

“This is irrelevant to me. I deal with no sensitive data.”

“As I do not work with empirical data I am not affected by RDM.”

“I am on the point of retiring so taking less interest in these things”

“RDM sounds like a gigantic waste of time and I intend to spend

as little time on it as possible”


How EPSRC Policy affects…

Research Organisations

Research Organisations have primary responsibility for ensuring that

researchers manage their data effectively.

They need established infrastructure and processes to ensure:

retained EPSRC-funded research data preserved for a minimum of 10-yrs

effective data curation provided throughout full data lifecycle

knowledge of publicly-funded research data holdings

discoverability; recording of 3rd party access requests

notice/ justification of access restrictions, e.g. ‘commercially confidential’

awareness/use of relevant law e.g. FOI

awareness/compliance with research data policies

adequate RDM resource allocation (e.g. from QR/Research Grants)



Researchers/Grant-holders

They have a responsibility to understand - and adhere to - EPSRC’s

principles and expectations for research data management. They should:

make EPSRC-funded research data freely/openly available with as few

restrictions as possible

comply with the RDM policies of their Research Organisation

have project specific RDM plans in place

have appropriate agreements, if relevant, with collaborators

ensure published research describes how to access supporting data

(also a requirement of the RCUK Policy on Open Access)

be aware/make use of relevant legislation and available exemptions as

needed to justify withholding research data



Non-Academic Partners

Non-Academic Partners in research collaborations need to be aware of:

the general principle - publicly-funded research data is expected to be

made freely and openly available with as few restrictions as possible

the relevant legal requirements such as the Freedom of Information Acts

the need to ensure issues of data ownership, confidentiality etc. are

adequately addressed in RDM plans and collaboration agreements -

before the start of a collaborative research project!

Data sharing agreements may be appropriate


Clarifications


Clarifications

Expectation I

Research organisations will promote internal awareness of these principles

and expectations and ensure that their researchers and research students have

a general awareness of the regulatory environment and of the available

exemptions which may be used, should the need arise, to justify the withholding

of research data;

What we mean…

Promoting internal awareness is expected to be an on-going part of ‘business

as usual’ induction and refresher training



Expectation II

Published research papers should include a short statement describing how and on what terms any supporting research data may be accessed.

What we mean…

• Consistent with the RCUK policy on Open Access

• Applies to all papers which acknowledge EPSRC funding and are published after 1

stMay 2015.

• Doesn’t apply to research papers which are not supported by research data (e.g. pure maths…?)

• We rely on researchers making informed judgements!

• Can be satisfied by including persistent links (URLs) to the data (or to data documentation)

Expectation III

Each research organisation will have specific policies and associated processes to maintain effective internal awareness of their publicly-funded research data holdings and of requests by third parties to access such data; all of their researchers or research students funded by EPSRC will be required to comply with research organisation policies in this area or, in exceptional circumstances, to provide justification of why this is not possible.

What we mean…

• Pragmatic - applies primarily to data held by the research organisation;

• Will help inform future decisions whether to keep specific datasets

• Does not apply to data deposited in an external repositories

but we believe research organisations will find such information a

valuable indicator of impact.


Expectation IV

Publicly-funded research data that is not generated in digital format will be stored in a manner to facilitate it being shared in the event of a valid request for access to the data being received (this expectation could be satisfied by implementing a policy to convert and store such data in digital format in a timely manner)

What we mean…

• Research data doesn’t have to be digitised,

• If it isn’t digitised it needs to be stored so that it could be accessed if necessary – valid requests shouldn’t be rejected ‘because it’s physically too awkward’ to share.



Expectation V

Research organisations will ensure that appropriately structured metadata describing the research data they hold is published (normally within 12 months of the data being generated) and made freely accessible on the internet; in each case the metadata must be sufficient to allow others to understand what research data exists, why, when and how it was generated, and how to access it. Where the research data referred to in the metadata is a digital object it is expected that the metadata will include use of a robust digital object identifier (For example as available through the DataCite organisation - http://datacite.org).

What we mean…

• Focus on making data discoverable and accessible, ‘normally within 12 months of the data being generated’

• Some flexibility of timing – justify exceptions, otherwise:

• Not more than 12 months after end of grant

• Not later than any publication which depends on the data

• For data underpinning a publication, can be satisfied by a resolvable citation to the data.

• Flexible on standards – use what is most appropriate to achieve the object.

http://datacite.org/


Expectation VI

Where access to the data is restricted the published metadata should also give the reason and summarise the conditions which must be satisfied for access to be granted. For example ‘commercially confidential’ data, in which a business organisation has a legitimate interest, might be made available to others subject to a suitable legally enforceable non-disclosure agreement.

What we mean…

• Protect 3rd

-party data, subject to consent.

• Personal/sensitive data – take extra care / precautions!

• Consider IP protection for commercially valuable data (publication delay may be justified while protection put in place)

• All, including collaborators, should recognise the responsibility to ensure that publicly funded research findings can be scrutinised and if necessary validated by others.

Expectation VII

Research organisations will ensure that EPSRC-funded research data is securely preserved for a minimum of 10-years from the date that any researcher ‘privileged access’ period expires or, if others have accessed the data, from last date on which access to the data was requested by a third party; all reasonable steps will be taken to ensure that publicly-funded data is not held in any jurisdiction where the available legal safeguards provide lower levels of protection than are available in the UK.

What we mean…

• Pragmatic about ‘access’ – the point is to keep data that’s proving useful to others; data citations/other metrics could demonstrate value...

• Not expected to keep data that has attracted no interest for more than 10 years.

• Provided published research findings can still be validated, it may be more cost effective to preserve the means to recreate data instead of preserving the data themselves



What we mean:

• If in doubt about ‘how’, seek Digital Curation Centre (www.dcc.ac.uk) advice.

Expectation VIII

Research organisations will ensure that effective data curation is provided throughout the full data lifecycle, with ‘data curation’ and ‘data lifecycle’ being as defined by the Digital Curation Centre. The full range of responsibilities associated with data curation over the data lifecycle will be clearly allocated within the research organisation, and where research data is subject to restricted access the research organisation will implement and manage appropriate security controls; research organisations will particularly ensure that the quality assurance of their data curation processes is a specifically assigned responsibility.

http://www.dcc.ac.uk/

Expectation IX

Research organisations will ensure adequate resources are provided to support the curation of publicly-funded research data; these resources will be allocated from within their existing public funding streams, whether received from Research Councils as direct or indirect support for specific projects or from higher education Funding Councils as block grants.

What we mean:

Subject to two simple rules, all costs associated with RDM are eligible expenditure of research grant funds. Further guidance available at http://bit.ly/1hhXu0u

The rules:

1. No expenditure can be ‘double funded’ (a central service funded from indirect costs cannot also be charged as a direct cost)

2. All directly incurred expenditure of a grant must be incurred before the end date of the grant.

Research offices are advised to ensure DMPs exist and appropriate resource for RDM is requested in all research proposals


http://bit.ly/1hhXu0u

Compliance Monitoring

Before Summer Break: Pro-VCs (Research) to complete ‘light-touch’ questionnaire

After Summer Break: dip-stick checking data availability for publications (published after 1st May)

Follow up of any complaints that an organisation we fund is failing to manage data in line with our expectations.

Longer term – formal self-assessment and dipstick checking by RC Audit & Assurance Services Group


Currently, in RCUK…

The RCUK Research Outputs Network (RCUK-RON)

is actively developing shared guidance on interpreting

the RCUK Principles

– individual council policies still stand.

No major philosophical differences identified – it’s the

nature of the data itself that is most often behind

differences in policy wording/approach

Common position on funding for RDM already

adopted


N.B. a ‘recent’ development…

The 2014 Intellectual Property Bill amended the Freedom of Information Act 2000:“Information obtained in the course of, or derived from, a programme of research is exempt information if—

(a) the programme is continuing with a view to the publication… …of a report of the research (whether or not including a statement of that information), and

(b) disclosure of the information… …before the date of publication would, or would be likely to, prejudice—

(i) the programme,(ii) the interests of any individual participating in the programme,

(iii) the interests of the authority which holds the information, or(iv) the interests of the authority mentioned in paragraph (a) (if it is a

different authority from that which holds the information).”

‘Public Interest’ test still applies


Thank You

Find the full policy and expectations on EPSRC website:

Ben RyanSenior Manager, Research Outcomes, EPSRC

[email protected]


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EPSRC Policy Framework on Research Data

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UKSG Conference 2015 - EPSRC research data management requirements Ben Ryan EPSRC

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